obama, on an interview on "meet the press" was cautiously opt missic. >> i'm confident that one of two things will happen when it comes to the fiscal cliff. one, we'll see an agreement within the next 48 hours in which case middle class taxes will not go up. if that doesn't happen, then democrats in the senate will put a bill on the floor of the senate and republican also have to decide if they're going to block it. >> biden and mcconnell are said to be only about $100,000 apart on where the bush era tax cuts would expire with the republican pushing for $550,000 a year. democrats offering a 450,000. biden stowed have given up his push to raise the estate tax. democrats are trying to delay spending cuts until 2015 and republicans are demanding more spending cuts to offset extended unemployment benefits and farm subsidies. lot of ground to make up. but mcconnell says his decision to reach out to biden was a good one. >> the vice president and i worked together on solutions before and i believe we can again. i want my colleagues to know that we'll keep everyone updated, the consequences o